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Andahuaylillas women and fine textile art

Thanks to Q'ewar Project in Cusco, they are makers of toys, ornaments and items that attract tourists and are export products

RENÉ ZUBIETA @ renezpWriting online

When you finish school, Jasmin Mamani Quispe was concerned about finding a job that gives support to her and the little one she carried in her womb, and she was about to be born. Certainly a difficult task from their day to day in a remote town of Cusco where, like her, many women did not have opportunities and are engaged in agriculture and livestock, or just to be at home.

It was in this intense search that met Q'ewar project, an initiative that promotes social and economic development of women in full, and which has found great support to succeed.

Created in 2002 by a sculptor and art teacher named Julio Herrera Burgos, the project implemented a textile workshop is slowly paying off. Today it has a stocked shop opposite the village of Andahuaylillas. That district of the province of Cusco Quispicanchi houses the temple of St. Peter the Apostle, which is part of the Andean Baroque Route.

His striking dolls, woolen garments and objects are an attraction for tourists coming to the place, and also an important driver of this company through exports to the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Australia and Canada.

"Very early I had my baby. There was no other work. So I showed up to work, I accepted Mr. Julio and I worked, "he recalls somewhat shy Jasmine, now 22. And so does since 2006, with the advantage of having his 6 years in kindergarten that the project has been implemented in the upper district.

But his face lights up when he says suddenly devoted, in addition to selling products, tissue. And is that not only knits for dolls, but also for the family member who is coming. It is 8 months pregnant, does not know what sex the baby will, but think of the name and your partner's emotional. He says the couple wants to have a baby boy.

"No one gives us the project work, but also support us with training," notes Jasmine, who also says her family supports her in what she does. He only has temporary jobs, she is instrumental in the binomial.

"Sold Chichita, not earning almost nothing"As young and smiling Jasmine, Dona Eulogia Mensala Quispe (52) was unemployed before joining the project. Single mother, like many in the shop, do not know what would become of her and her 16 year old son, who is about to finish school.

"I feel very happy, because he has given us a lot of work. We did not work. I, for one, did not I earned chichita almost anything, "recalls Eulogia, which is in the project since its inception in 2002.